What does it take to get highly ranked on search engines?
The importance of content
Keywords: The lifeblood of your online presence
What you should expect to pay
Questions to ask a prospective freelancer, potential employee or company about web design & SEO
Your webpage is really just an advertisement

 

What it takes to get highly raked on search engines.                         (back to top)

 

You sell stuff, either a product, service or both. Or maybe you have a great idea for a new kind of social network. Whatever the case, you want people -complete strangers that may be locals in your town or people all over the world- to find your website, check out what you do, and maybe buy something, fill out a form, join a group or pick up the phone for more information. Sounds easy enough, right?

More than once I've heard from a client, "Can't you just do some code stuff to make me show up high in Google's rankings?". The answer is invariably 'no', unless they want to go broke quick with a poorly planned Google Adwords campaign, which some people completely ignore anyway, myself included. The 'no' is based on the fact that whoever does your marketing is going to need YOUR input, and the fact that there's probably already countless more websites out there offering the same thing you do, who might even do it better or have been around a lot longer.

So what do you have to do to get ranked high on search engines? Obviously other people are in every category imaginable, so why not you?

Surprisingly, the answer is common sense. That will keep you covered at all times throughout the life-long process of having your company being available on the internet.

There are hundreds of factors that go into a decent natural (or free or 'non-sponsored') search engine rank, but it always boils down to three general key elements, that I like to look at as a three-legged stool, i.e. if one of the legs is weak or isn't there, you really don't have a stool. These metaphorical legs are, in order:

1. Popularity: Has your website received a billion clicks in the past year? This happens all the time to a lot of companies who are obviously doing very well. And if it has, you're probably high up on most search engines because you are popular, plain and simple. A large amount of clicks (and the 'large' number can vary, depending on the search topic) surely must mean you must have something exciting going on, and congratulations for that. But how do you get a zillion clicks a day? You really must have...
   
   
2. Relevant, Informative Content: Why should a visitor go to your site, when there's probably ten, one hundred, one thousand or more sites or companies similar to you? If you are selling a great product or service, what makes it so great? Will visitors leave your site more informed than before they got there? Does your website stay exactly the same for months, or do you constantly update it with fresh, pertinent information so people will bookmark it and come back in the future? And did you just start out, or has your site been around since the internet got popular? There really should be a long list of things that make your website content and company stand out from everybody else, otherwise you might as well find something else to do with your time, money and future. But all this exciting content that everyone marvels to look at wouldn't mean much if you didn't have a...
   
   
3. A Well Organized Website: all your amazing content should be easy to find and interesting to look at. This is mostly based on decent site structure, which is actually a somewhat rigid and detailed process.

With all that said, there's actually a substantial list of things to do before you can even start looking to see how high (or low) you rank on search engines. And many of the things on the list are on-going. Would Niagara Falls be as interesting to look at if the water didn't move? Probably not. And why do people sign into their Facebook page almost obsessively all day long? The answer is... new content. Which probably comes in the form of a message or new picture. Which is really just content.

 

Content, content, content.                         (back to top)

 

CONTENT! AND LOTS OF IT!

Although I listed popularity as the number one factor in search engine rankings, your content is the most important aspect of your website, and you need A LOT of it. Where does it come from? That's up to you, your web designer and marketing personnel. You're going to have to look deep inside why you started doing what you do and show your best face to the internet cosmos. Your content should reach out of the computer screen and grab people by the collar. And although more is better than less, you have to make sure that you aren't repetitive, boring, too much like other sites or too wordy.

Your website i really just an advertisement. It is not your company, it just represents it.

Even companies like eBay, who are purely based in and reliant on the internet, just sell stuff. I could even argue that massive free online resources like Wikipedia are advertisements for people to donate time and money to their company in the name of education and free speech.

So unless you are a bank or law firm, your website you have some content that will somehow make the user go 'wow'.

 

Keywords, the lifeblood of your online presence:                         (back to top)

This diagram illustrates, at a basic level, how keywords are the link between potential online customers, search engines and your webpage's content. The more popular and well-written your webpage content is, the higher your page rank will be against all your competitors. If you're doing an sponsored ad campaign, they will have to be amazing as well.

                

 

Getting started: What you should expect to pay:                         (back to top)

 

If you were going to have someone change the engine in your car, would you go with the mechanic who charges $500 or go with someone who says they can do it for $50? Going back to my common sense cover-all rule, you're much better off going with someone who can work with you long term, be available when you need them and be willing to do what it takes to make your online exposure is as cost-effecient as possible. And, like your mechanic, you're going to have to shell out some bucks to make sure the job gets done right.

But how much money should you pay? If you're like most companies, you're budget it pretty tight, and may be next to nothing. You may want to consider raising more capitol or taking out a loan if you are serious about getting sales from the popular internet search engines, using either sponsored ads or natural listing. Although it's possible to learn all the techniques for putting together and marketing a website yourself (or putting in a car engine), your time will be much better spent running (or setting up) your business and providing valuable input to your design & marketing team. It's as simple as that.

Cash-wise, you really should be thinking in the 'thousands', not 'hundreds', of dollars. If you were going to buy a car, chances are you're not going to get anything too reliable in the long-term for under $1000. Or maybe you'll get lucky, but maybe not. Either way, if you run into problems, you won't be too surprised. And the further you go up from $1000, the chances are better that you'll get a vehicle worth having. Of course, you can also spend a huge amount of money and get disappointed as well, and that's where finding the right people comes in. And most likely you're not going to get anyone that will see you through to the next level for under $1000 for your website & marketing considerations. It's just too big a project and there's too many things to be considered to make those numbers work for anyone who has to take the job seriously.

Of course, you can do a 'starter' website, and try it yourself or pay someone a few hundred dollars to do it just to get your name out there, but most likely your site will need a major overhaul when you start your internet marketing. And this major overhaul might include a change in your website name (or "URL" and those are really important), and who does your hosting, which is a much more important factor than most people think.

So leave it to somebody that's done it before and can explain to you, in layman's terms, their step-by-step process in the next few months on how they will arrange your website and get your prospective customers to do whatever you need to in order to move your business forward.

 

Here's a list of general things you should talk about concerning your web design & SEO                        (back to top)

 

All these should be answered in detail. First off, they should be asking you:

1. Website goals- What the specific goal of your site is: a phone call, a filled out form, a sign-up to a service, a purchase of a product though a credit card, or having a customer walk through your door.
   
   
2. Who your customers are, specifically (and it's never "everyone"). The more you can zone in on this one, the better.
   
   
3. Who your competitors are. You'll need to gauge your site against theirs, see what they do right & wrong, and see what'll make you stand out from all of the.
   
   
4. What makes your product or service better than anyone else's. Again, there should be a list of specifics on this. If you can't think of any, make some up, but don't go too far over the edge.

Thing you should ask them about:

1. Keywords.
   
2. Hosting and whether or not it's important, and it is important.
   
3. Website structure, and that's important too.
   
4. How long it will take to get the word out there- it can take many months for a new website to show up on search engines, and years before they get in to the coveted first few pages of a search. Although this also depends on the type of business, location, competitors, etc.
   
5. How to keep track of what's going on (Google Analytics is the best one out there, and it's worth learning how to use it).
   
6. Paid online advertising (Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter are the big ones).
   
7. What kind of results you can see in a month, 6 months, a year, etc.
8. How much it costs to do small monthly updates. A small monthly charge should do the trick. Remember that constant updates and new content are very important.

For a quick look at all the things Google and other search engines look for in a webpage, click here. It's a lot.

I also suggest that you find someone very local, and someone who's worked long-term with other clients. Ask them if you can talk to a few of their clients who've been with them for two years or more. If they can't come up with at least two, who's sites you can look up right away, find somebody else. For more info in what to look for in a web developer, read this article.

Your webpage is really just an advertisement!                        (back to top)

That's right. It's really just like any other ad, only it's a little different. It can pretty much do what any other print, audio or video ad can (technically) can do, and a lot more. The twist is that there has to be other ads out there in order to get people to come and visit your ad.

Here's where working smart will really pay off, as there are unlimited possibilities to spend your money. The first place to try for a lot of companies is Google Adwords, where you can keep track of how many people click your ad and judge it against how many people call or sign up on your site, for a relatively cost-efficient price.